Exposure- Wilfred Owen Flashcards
describe what the poem is about
- soldiers in trenches of World War One awake at night, afraid of an enemy attack
- nature seems to be main enemy
- men imagine returning home, but doors there are closed to them
- return thinking about their deaths in icy, bleak trenches
describe the form
- written in present tense using first person plural
- collective voice shows how experience shared by soldiers across war.
- each stanza has regular rhyme scheme, reflecting monotonous nature of men’s experience, but rhymes often half rhymes rhymes jagged like reality of men’s experience and reflect their confusion and fading energy
describe the structure
- eight stanzas , but no real progression
- last stanza ends with same words as first one, reflecting monotony of life in trenches and absence of change
“our brains ache”
shared, painful experience
“in the merciless iced east winds that knive us…”
nature personified and seems to be attacking them
describe use of ellipses “…”
hint that they’re waiting for something to happen- it never does
“confuse” “worried” ““curious, nervous,”
lots of different emotions- another reason why their brains hurt
“but nothing happens”
short, simple half line emphasises their boredom and tension. Final stanza ends in same way suggesting that even death doesn’t change anything
“like twitching agonies of men among its brambles”
the “brambles” of barbed wire remind us of the pain caused by nature
“flickering gunnery rumbles”
assonance and onomatopoeia create vivid aural description
“like a dull rumour of some other war”
Biblical reference to Mathew 24:6 where Jesus foretells end of world. He says “you will hear of wars and rumours of war”
“what are we doing here?”
rhetorical question asking what the point of it all is
“Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army”
dawn is personified using language of battle. normally dawn brings hope but not here
“ranks on shivering ranks”
description of dawn approaching mirrors the soldiers in trenches
“grey”
no colour- battlefield cold and lifeless. Grey colour of Germans uniform, so aligns nature with the enemy
“sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence”
sibilance mimics the whistling sound of bullets flying
“black with snow”
snow normally white (symbolising purity), but here it’s black (symbolising evil or death)
“flowing flakes that flock”
alliteration emphasises relentlessness of snow
“pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces-“
snowflakes are personified- they’re maliciously seeking the men’s faces
“snow-dazed” sun-dozed”
half-rhyme creates link between their current situation and their dreams of the past
“-is it that we are dying”
another question, possibly answering first question - they’re here to die
“slowly our ghosts drag home”
assonance of ‘oh’ sounds makes the imagined journey sound painful and slow
“crusted dark-red jewels”
fires offer them no warmth- they look like jewels, which are precious but cold
“shutters and doors, all closed; on us the doors are closed, - “
caesura in this stanza creates division on each line, which reflects how the men are shut out of their homes. this also reflects soldiers’ concern that people back home were losing interest in their fate as war dragged on
“for love of God seems dying”
could mean that their love of God is disappearing,or that they feel God’s love for them is dying
“shrivelling many hands, puckering foreheads crisp”
vivid image of what exposure to cold does to their bodies
“all their eyes are ice”
metaphor refers to eyes of the living and dead men- vivid description of how they’ve been overpowered by nature. It hints that living men are no longer able to feel emotions
